Rating: Summary: the first depressive vampire Review: A book about sorrow, questions, passions, very erotic and captivating. Loved it! A book about human nature and types - Louis, the analythical type, Lestat - powerfull, Armand - charismathic, sophisticated and sensual, Claudia - cold and calculated. A drama of imortal life when all you know & love changes and you can't understand. Viewed by Louis, life is so sad. I believe Louis is the first depressive vampire in all the stories, a vampire with a human soul, suffering each time he kills. Such a cold immortal heart and yet such pain. Looking for a master more than for answers he hates Lestat, not a good teacher, he loves Claudia but in spite that love he still feels miserable and alone. He thinks he finds in Armand someone to guide him, someone strong. Armand is the best vampire-character ever created. Anyhow, much, much better than the film!
Rating: Summary: Interviewing the vampire Review: Anne Rice took the publishing world by storm in "Interview With the Vampire," a haunting book that turned the evil-bloodsucker cliche on its ear. Her lush prose and vivid characters turn the dramatic plot and strange scenarios into a chilling look at good and evil, thankfully without melodrama.
In modern times, a young man is interviewing a vampire on tape recorder. The vampire is Louis Pointe du Lac. In 1791, his ultra-religious brother died tragically after an argument, and Louis sank into remorse and despair. Enter Lestat de Lioncourt, a charming vampire who offers Louis a way out of his grief.
The two vampires wander the cities of the world, with Lestat teaching his reluctant pupil the ways of vampirism. In time Louis makes a "daughter": Claudia, a vampire child with the mind of a woman. Now, depressed and unhappy, Louis explains how he and Claudia fled Lestat, only to encounter new tragedies that still haunt him to this day...
Moral struggles are rarely present in vampire novels. Certainly not from the vampire's point of view. But that is exactly what Anne Rice attempts in this book. She wraps her dark story in lush prose and beautiful descriptions of Paris and her hometown of New Orleans, making this one of the best-written vampire stories since "Dracula."
No gore and grit here. Rice's writing is exceptionally beautiful, full of lush descriptions and intricate detail. Best of all, it has that rare quality of atmosphere -- no matter how enchanting the vampire, or beautiful the setting, a feeling of darkness and sorrow runs through it.
Rice also dips into one of the best examples of literary vampirism ever: Louis becomes a vampire out of his grief, but once the grief fades, he is left with the soul of a human, and the bloodthirst of a vampire -- things that can't be reconciled. His longing to remain as human as possible, in defiance of his curse, is a tragic twist in a dark storyline.
Louis is a bit of a whiner, but a deeper look reveals why. He struggles with morality and beliefs that -- unlike Lestat -- he never really let go of. Because he is a vampire, he is by his very nature a killer, yet the idea of murder is repulsive to him. Lestat is utterly charming and incredibly engaging, despite his amoral behavior. It's not hard to see why Louis would be drawn in by such an enchanting person, no matter how bad he is.
One of the greatest shaping influences on elegant vampire lore has been Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire." A beautiful and lush novel of darkness and beauty.
Rating: Summary: Laborious read... Review: Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE's praising reviews on this site puzzle me. I found the book to be anything but a page-turner at most parts. Even when the story picked up pace and became somewhat interesting, I found myself caught in a web of too many details and needless repetition about the characters personas. It was almost as if Rice is beating one over the head with the charcaters' personality flaws to make sure the reader does indeed "get it." The book could easily have been half its size.
The story itself was interesting at times, but as I said, the over abundance of details diminished the joy of encountering these parts. And the ending was not very believeable. The interviewer must have been a real idiot to want what he requested (won't give it away if you want to read it still).
If you want an excellent, page-turning vampire story, skip this and read 'SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King.
Rating: Summary: awsome!!! couldn't put it down! Review: awsome book! anne rice has created a whole other world of vampires that's so believable and real. she has defyed old myths about vampries, which, by defying them in her story, give them almost human like qualites. in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, you can feel for Louis, the vampire telling his story to a reporter about immortality and the life of a vampire. its a very powerful book full of saddness, sorrow, and yet happiness and joy at times. a very powerful and moving book, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is well worth the read!
Rating: Summary: The new classic vampire novel Review: Hey. This is my second review for Amazon, and I've decided to review this book. Like many people, I first read this, and the other novels that make up The Vampire Chronicles, back when the movie came out. And like many movies made from books, the book is the superior of the two. Who among us, reading this book, has not thought about what it would be like to become a vampire, living forever and stalking the night? This book does a great job of balancing the power of the vampire with the inate sadness of being cursed never to see the light of day. But you don't need me to tell you this. If you're at all like me, you browse this site to read what other people thought about books, music, or movies that you love. If, however, you're reading these reviews trying to decide what to buy, I hope you'll take my advice. This is a great novel, and you won't be disappointed if you get it. And if you enjoy this one, look for the rest of the series, as they fill in some of the questions you might have after reading this. Later.
Rating: Summary: Excellent, a classic in the genre... Review: I am not sure what 'older' readers will think of this book (from the review though, it seems you do!)...Anyway, I myself am only 13 years old...I have always liked reading about werewolves, vampires, magic, horror, etc, even though most of the teen books are fairly inadequate examples of the category.
I first saw this as a movie. My mother actually told me that it was on, casually, and it seemed like something I would like. I watched it without really watching it; I was mostly playing my pc, but the next time I saw it I thought it was indeed very well made. So, anyhow, a big time lapse, and I am at an Eckerd's one day and I see it as a novel. I buy it, and my mother then expressively prohibits me to read further when I bring it home.
So, I was at the bookstore...and I picked it up. I don't know what drew me towards it, but for the longest time I brooded on simply buying it, reading a bit. My redeeming arguments were that I am more mature than most teenagers, and anyway, its not like they haven't put on television what they published before.
This was an infinitely long process for me. I buy it eventually, hiding it, loving it, and am instantly drawn into it. Rice is truly a master of manipulating the feelings, and giving her a characters a 3-D realism, so that all their motives seem justified, so that almost nothing sticks out as awkward or forced, or untrue to the character.
Her attention to detail, while long winded and rather boring at some points sculpts a full world for her characters. There is very little to criticize about her work, other than that I did find myself looking for lighter, happier moments. I waited and waited until I finally realized the book's depressing tone isn't just temporary. This was certainly disappointing, I wish that just once there was a point, if only briefly, where you can rest without being bogged down by the sorrowful tone.
I finished it today. In some places, I feel the movie version is slightly better, like the ending (I will not give away either version's, though). However it was certainly much better that in the book we can experience all the movie's trivial characters, like Santiago and Madeleine and the theatre's vampires. Rice truly creates a fully-dimensional, self-sustained world.
I would probably not recommend this book to any of my peers simply because of certain, highly sexual scenes, though no actual description, even of kissing. Most were not, granted, however there is definitely a maturity issue involved.
A great book, truly a classic, for matured audiences.
Rating: Summary: Fascinating. Could not put down. Review: I'd never read an Anne Rice novel and this was amazing. Sucked me in right from the start. Her literary talent is something to study as well as enjoy. She knows New Orleans so well, I could feel the moist air, smell the smells. I felt like I was there.
And the world of the vampires she created was so detailed, I kept marveling that anyone could have all of that in their brain much less put it on paper so beautifully. Thanks for sharing it with us, is all I can say about talented authors like Ann.
Rating: Summary: Interview with the Vampire Review: Interview with the vampire by Anne Rice tells the story of the life of a vampire from the point of him becoming a vampire until the present time of the telling of the story itself. The entire book is in the form of an interview between the vampire Louis and a young man whoes name is not given.I found this book verry enjoyable, the descriptians and languge this author uses are fantastic and make you want to read more and more. I was worried that the story being told in first person would grow old but I found myself forgetting all about the style in wich the novel was written in and rather becoming completley drawn into the story itself. Definatley worth the read, oh and yes it is much better than the movie, which I also enjoyed greatly.
Rating: Summary: Superficially Interesting, but Not Particularly Well-Done Review: Maybe I just don't get it, but this novel didn't do anything for me. The storyline was fairly interesting, but not superb. The characters were well-developed: overdeveloped, even, in that Rice repeated their flaws. Reading, I felt as if I was being continuously bludgeoened with heavy-handed grandiose drippings of love and eternity and loneliness. This context was set tens of times throughout the novel, rather than - as I would have found preferential - set once, with the plot/storyline to develop off of it.
It seems as if the human population is decisively split between Rice fans, and Rice haters. Her writing can be tedious, at times, but is never difficult to read. About half-way through, one will feel inclined to seriously question as to whether any aspects of the book will change, or if the characters - at this point, Louis and Claudia - will simply continue on their well-worn path of searching for other Vampires and endless self-speculation and introspection.
This book is not without its merits: It deals with a fascinating subject matter that has romanticised mythology and spawned a film and novel genre. However, in all, I found this novel lackluster and overall uninteresting. Interview with the Vampire is worth reading if only for its place in the 'horror' canon, but not for the actual quality of the work. It exists as the seminal piece of fiction within this genre, however I may disagree with that, it should be acknowledged as such.
Rating: Summary: I love this book Review: Ok for starters I didn't expect to enjoy this book, and also I did what many very bad people do and I watched the film before I read the book. I thought the film was great until I read the book and then I realised that the raw sexuality of the text could ony come through in novel form. I adore the way Anne Rice decribes the taking of blood she does it without shame in the way that every other... book I've ever read describes a passionate... encounter. Claudia made me cry, she was so mixed up, without the experience of being treated as an adult, she had to stay a precosious child with a wise old woman's mind and somehow a woman's sex drive, her lust poured through the pages in the same way as Lestats like a thumping pulse. Louis, sweet innocent Louis who should never have been a vampire appreciated evey emotion he felt much ,more deeply than the other characters in the book, and analysed every thing said to him, I fell in love with him. If I met him I'd without hesitation agree to be his eternal partner. Never have I fallen in love with a book so deeply since Flowers in the attic. Pease read this book!
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